Following a very successful workshop on the simulation and experimental study of biomolecular diffusional processes in Heidelberg in 2007, a second workshop will take place on October 11-13, 2010, at the Studio, Villa Bosch.

Researchers believe that the puzzle of catalytic gold is now partially solved. Gold can catalyse an oxidation reaction by first oxidising itself. New research evidence on gold-oxide phase at room temperature and atmospheric pressure help us to finally understand the oxidation mechanisms of catalytic gold nanoclusters in these conditions.

University of Illinois chemistry professor Alexander Scheeline wants to see high school students using their cell phones in class. Not for texting or surfing the Web, but as an analytical chemistry instrument. Scheeline developed a method using a few basic, inexpensive supplies and a digital camera to build a spectrometer, an important basic chemistry instrument.

Dr. Eui-Hyeok Yang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Micro Device Laboratory (MDL) at Stevens Institute of Technology, will receive funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the acquisition of a Nanoimprint Lithography System (NIL) for the purpose of nanoscience research and education based on low-dimensional materials at Stevens.

An approach pioneered by researchers at North Carolina State University gives scientists new insight into the way silicon bonds with other materials at the atomic level. This technique could lead to improved understanding of and control over bond formation at the atomic level, and opportunities for the creation of new devices and more efficient microchips.

By creating a better way to see molecules at work in living brain cells, researchers affiliated with MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the MIT Department of Chemistry are helping elucidate molecular mechanisms of synapse formation.

Of the tools used to study material structures at the atomic and molecular scales, there is none finer than Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and its daughter technology Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Now, the latest development from the research group of one of the word's foremost authorities on NMR/MRI technology promises NMR/MRI results that are better and faster than ever before - a million times faster!

Researchers at Queen's University have discovered how molecules in glass or plastic are able to move when exposed to light from a laser. The findings could one day be used to facilitate medicinal drug distribution by allowing doctors to control the time and rate at which drugs are delivered into the body. The drugs, in a solid plastic carrier, could be released through the body when exposed to light.

Foreign material in the human body, such as implants for hip and knee joints, can be enhanced by ongoing biotribologisk research on lubrication, abrasion and friction. Researchers at Lulea University of Technology can reduce the frequency of painful hip operations and reduce healthcare costs by their research.

The EU is proud to announce that two of its grantees, Professor Konstantin Novoselov and Professor Andre Geim of the University of Manchester in the UK, have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work in two-dimensional graphene.

In a major boost for X-ray science and accelerator physics, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has committed about $109 million to Cornell's continued operation of an X-ray synchrotron facility, as well as to develop a new kind of X-ray source that promises to revolutionize the field.

Superconductivity, the flow of electrons without resistance, is typically suppressed by magnetic fields, which disrupt the intricately choreographed electron motion. Theoretical physicists at Cornell, working with experimental physicists at Rice University, have carefully engineered a system in which these conflicting properties are believed to put aside their differences.